Strangely Educated
Some metaphors become so ingrained into our consciousness that we often overlook the fact that people might have the education required to fully understand it. The protagonist of the novel is by no means ignorant or stupid and, additionally, has good reason to be familiar with African history, but it still raises the question of how far and wide did knowledge of ancient Egyptian myth really travel in the past?
“Tomorrow when you go to visit Pao Joaquim you must say nothing, you must observe silence before him. You must be like a little sphinx, do you hear me?”
Mother
For such a considerably long novel, it is surprisingly short on metaphorical imagery. Most similes, for instance, are directed toward the type of description prose that one would expect. For instance, physical description of character. And even then, the language is stripped down to basics:
“I’ve not described my mother. A big-boned, handsome woman, she did not comb her hair down or tie it in scarves like some of the other women; she wore it so that it looked like the crown of a tree, high all around her head.”
Palmares
Palmares was an actual historical reality. What Palmares was in language free from metaphor is basically what the whole book revolves around explain. But one single metaphorical image distills all narrative down to a single basic expression of hope:
“Then you’ve come to the right place,” I said. “For Palmares and freedom are the same.”
Women and Men
The nature of relationships between men and women comes under the microscope big time in this novel. The language in this circumstance makes a sharp turn from the simplicity described above to become more lyrical and figurative, but in almost a stream-of-consciousness sort of way that makes it clearly stand out from the rest of the narrative:
“He goes to her. And in what small corner of his imagination is that one? Before I would have vied for a larger corner, claimed my larger corner. See how a woman lives in a man’s imagination.”
The Lexicographer
A character who enters the story early is a very idiosyncratic sort. He refers to himself as a compiler of dictionaries in offering a definition of what a lexicographer does. And things just take off from that point into a rare whirlwind of metaphorical discourse: “My father goes hunting for lost races and the races are here!” he shouted.
“Try to improve the ones here I say, and he calls me a discredit to the family. He’s off to some magic desert and I’m here where the manioc grows. So, you see I’m a maker of dictionaries and a clown and acrobat. Do you think I’m a clown?...Well, this is a land of clowns, or at least exaggerated personalities.”
